The long-distance flight behavior of Drosophila supports an agent-based model for wind-assisted dispersal in insects
The long-distance flight behavior of Drosophila supports an agent-based model for wind-assisted dispersal in insects
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.2013342118
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发表时间：
2021-04-27
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Dickinson, Michael H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Leitch, Katherine J.;Ponce, Francesca, V;Dickinson, Michael H.
尽管昆虫远距离扩散的生态重要性，其机制的基础是知之甚少的遗传模式物种，其中先进的分子工具是现成的。一个关键问题是昆虫如何与风相互作用来检测有吸引力的气味羽流并在它们分散时增加它们的传播距离。为了深入了解扩散，我们在莫哈韦沙漠用果蝇进行了释放和重新捕获实验。我们在释放地点周围1公里半径的环形区域内部署了化学诱饵陷阱，配备了摄像机，可以捕捉苍蝇降落时的到达时间。在每个实验中，我们释放了30，000到200，000只苍蝇。通过在各种条件下重复实验，我们能够量化风对苍蝇的影响？扩散行为我们的研究结果证实，即使是微小的果蝇可以分散？在静止的空气中一次飞行12公里，在中等风的情况下可能会飞行数倍于此的距离。苍蝇的扩散行为可以用一个基于代理的模型很好地解释，在这个模型中，动物保持相对于天体线索的固定身体方向，积极地调节沿着它们的身体轴的地速，并允许风向侧面平流。该模型解释了苍蝇在静止空气中积极向各个方向散开，但随着风力增强，它们越来越多地被平流顺风吹走的观察结果。我们的研究结果表明，分散的昆虫可能会达到一个平衡之间的需要，以覆盖大的距离，同时仍然保持拦截来自逆风源的气味羽流的机会。
Despite the ecological importance of long-distance dispersal in insects, its mechanistic basis is poorly understood in genetic model species, in which advanced molecular tools are readily available. One critical question is how insects interact with the wind to detect attractive odor plumes and increase their travel distance as they disperse. To gain insight into dispersal, we conducted release-and-recapture experiments in the Mojave Desert using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We deployed chemically baited traps in a 1 km radius ring around the release site, equipped with cameras that captured the arrival times of flies as they landed. In each experiment, we released between 30,000 and 200,000 flies. By repeating the experiments under a variety of conditions, we were able to quantify the influence of wind on flies? dispersal behavior. Our results confirm that even tiny fruit flies could disperse ?12 km in a single flight in still air and might travel many times that distance in a moderate wind. The dispersal behavior of the flies is well explained by an agent-based model in which animals maintain a fixed body orientation relative to celestial cues, actively regulate groundspeed along their body axis, and allow the wind to advect them sideways. The model accounts for the observation that flies actively fan out in all directions in still air but are increasingly advected downwind as winds intensify. Our results suggest that dispersing insects may strike a balance between the need to cover large distances while still maintaining the chance of intercepting odor plumes from upwind sources.